” On Friday a federal appeals court struck down ObamaCare’s HHS contraception mandate, deciding that the requirement is an infringement upon religious liberty.

According to The Hill, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of two Catholic brothers, Francis and Philip Gilardi, who own a 400-person produce company based in Ohio. The Gilardis argued that they oppose contraception due to the tenets of their Catholic faith, and challenged ObamaCare’s provision that requires them to provide free contraception to their employees through a health insurance plan.

The brothers claimed that if they chose not to obey the law, they would incur a $14 million fine.

A requirement that companies cover their employees’ contraception, the court ruled, is unduly burdensome for business owners who oppose birth control on religious grounds, though they may not be purchasing contraception directly.”

” “Because Hobby Lobby is a secular employer, it is not entitled to the protections of the Free Exercise Clause or RFRA [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act],” Delery told the court on behalf of the administration. “This is because, although the First Amendment freedoms of speech and association are ‘right[s] enjoyed by religious and secular groups alike,’ the Free Exercise Clause ‘gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations.’”

In keeping with Delery’s argument, the Washington Post, as a corporation, can use its First Amendment-protected freedom of speech to write editorials in support of the Obama administration imposing its contraception mandate on businesses like Hobby Lobby. But the members of the family that created and owns Hobby Lobby, because they formed Hobby Lobby as a corporation, have no First Amendment freedom of religion that protects them from being forced by the government to act against their religious beliefs in providing abortion-inducing drugs.

The second argument the administration makes to justify forcing Christians to act against their faith is more sweeping. Here the administration argues it can force a person to act against his religion so long as the coercion is done under the authority of a law that is neutral and generally applicable—in other words, as long as the law was not written specifically to persecute Christians as Christians, the government can use that law to persecute Christians. ”

” Now that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied Hobby Lobby’s application for an emergency injunction protecting them from Obamacare’s HHS Mandate on abortion and birth control, Hobby Lobby has decided to defy the federal government to remain true to their religious beliefs, at enormous risk and financial cost.

Hobby Lobby is wholly owned and controlled by the Green family, who are evangelical Christians. The Greens are committed to running their business in accordance with their Christian faith, believing that God wants them to conduct their professional business in accordance with the family’s understanding of the Bible. Hobby Lobby’s mission statement includes, “Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company … consistent with Biblical principles.”

The HHS Mandate goes into effect for Hobby Lobby on Jan. 1, 2013. The Greens correctly understand that some of the drugs the HHS Mandate requires them to cover at no cost in their healthcare plans cause abortions.

Today Hobby Lobby announced that they will not comply with this mandate to become complicit in abortion, which the Greens believe ends an innocent human life. Given Hobby Lobby’s size (it has 572 stores employing more than 13,000 people), by violating the HHS Mandate, it will be subject to over $1.3 million in fines per day. That means over $40 million in fines in January alone. If their case takes another ten months to get before the Supreme Court—which would be the earliest it could get there under the normal order of business—the company would incur almost a half-billion dollars in fines. And then of course the Supreme Court would have to write an opinion in what would likely be a split decision with dissenters, which could easily take four or six months and include hundreds of millions of dollars in additional penalties. ”

” FOX NEWS: To provide all Americans with health insurance, premiums will have to rise to pay for it, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Wednesday. “If we’re going to insure all Americans, which is a worthy and appropriate cause, then somebody has to pay for it,” Bertolini said of the expected premium increases under Obamacare. Bertolini said that insurance premiums could double in some places just on the basis of what types of policies people buy today. He also said that when Obamacare is fully implemented, it won’t start the way people had hoped and it won’t be cheaper. ”

” If you’re on our facebook page ever, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve been absolutely bombarded with liberals lately. They’re in epic panic mode now that the election is just a day away, and their hysteria is at an all time high.

Case in point. Leslie Vaughn wrote this in response to the post/picture I put up last night about liberal feminists.

She had so many talking points in it I thought it might be a good idea to address each one in the same post, so that perhaps these misguided, misinformed, mistaken women might learn something. (I know, not likely, but I wanted to at least give it the old college try.)

“Support contraception!” Leslie says. Newsflash, Leslie. Many many many conservatives DO support contraception. We have nothing against it. In fact, I consider contraception to be sort of a hallmark of one of the basic guiding principles of conservatism – which is TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. You want to have sex and not get pregnant? Protect yourself. It’s really simple. What we do NOT support, is forcing others to pay for your desire to have sex. Which leads me to Leslie’s next talking point. “